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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29615490">Aang Week</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitty_pryde_bi_pride/pseuds/kitty_pryde_bi_pride'>kitty_pryde_bi_pride</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aang (Avatar)-centric, Aang Week 2021, Drabble Collection, Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 17:13:59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>700</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29615490</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitty_pryde_bi_pride/pseuds/kitty_pryde_bi_pride</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Series of unconnected (and largely AU) drabbles about Aang, for Aang Week.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. laughter/joy</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Azula sometimes goes months without a visitor.</p><p> </p><p>She’s spread hate for a long time, and everyone’s letting her reap what she’s sown.</p><p> </p><p>It’s okay- she’s not one to judge, anymore.</p><p> </p><p>One person visits: The Avatar.</p><p> </p><p>He brings her favorite foods, sits down to play a game of pai sho, talks with her. Laughs with her.</p><p> </p><p>One day, he brings her out of her prison and takes her to an abandoned air temple. She stares silently at the burnt walls, signs of a once happy people.</p><p> </p><p>She asks why he’s brought her here.</p><p> </p><p>He asks if she wants a new start.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. family/gyatso</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There’s a world where Gyatso saved Aang from ever knowing his destiny.</p><p> </p><p>He hides him away the moment the elders begin discussing duty, deep in the abandoned mountains of the Earth kingdom.</p><p> </p><p>Aang becomes self-taught, playing in the rivers and dirt and sun. His world is rooted in nature and he’s beloved by the spirit world.</p><p> </p><p>Gyatso dies six years after he steals Aang away, when the boy has just turned 18.</p><p> </p><p>Aang ventures alone into a world shook by the Fire Nation, and no understanding of war.</p><p> </p><p>He goes down fighting.</p><p> </p><p>No one knew him well enough to mourn.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. avatar state/cycle</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sometimes Aang feels out of control.</p><p> </p><p>He sits with Zuko, and a tired man whispers never to trust a Fire Nation ally. He awaits something, tensely.</p><p> </p><p>During a battle, he hears a steady woman reminding him of his duty. He fights to kill.</p><p> </p><p>Katara spends time rebuilding the Southern Water Tribe, and a gruff voice tells him many people would seek to harm the Avatar’s chosen. He protects her, overbearingly.</p><p> </p><p>He spends time with his family, and a soothing tone reminds him he’s above earthly obligations. He leaves again.</p><p> </p><p>Wan tries to warn him. The other Avatars drown him out.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. dance</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Toph thinks Aang is the freest person she knows.</p><p> </p><p>She herself is free, from duty and family, but he’s different.</p><p> </p><p>She is anchored to the earth and he is anchored to nothing physical. The rare moments he’s grounded, she swears he’s lighter than the air he controls.</p><p> </p><p>It’s like he’s dancing, the way he moves.</p><p> </p><p>She’s impressed he can move like that by himself, that he’s confident enough to find his own rhythm.</p><p> </p><p>She wonders if once, he had someone to dance with.</p><p> </p><p>She wonders if he ever wanted to be free like she is.</p><p> </p><p>(No one ever asked him.)</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. air temples</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Aang doesn’t talk to most people about his memories of past lives.</p><p> </p><p>Katara and Sokka can’t relate, Zuko gets tense and apologetic, Toph doesn’t care.</p><p> </p><p>It’s isolating.</p><p> </p><p>He visits an air temple, ever empty, and takes a moment to breathe.</p><p> </p><p>He’s aware when someone else arrives – he can feel the disturbance in the air, the earth, the water in their eyes and heat of their breath – but he doesn’t turn.</p><p> </p><p>They sit down next to him, pulling him into a hug, telling him what they’ve learned about Kyoshi.</p><p> </p><p>Aang closes his eyes and remembers.</p><p> </p><p>“Thank you, Suki.”</p><p> </p><p>“Don’t mention it.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. grief</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Avatar was designed to rise to the occasion.</p><p> </p><p>It’s a heavy task, but Aang was never given a choice.</p><p> </p><p>He has a strong connection to the spirit world and when he visits that air temple – the one where Gyatso died, a blunt symbol of his cowardice – something inside him seems to tremble.</p><p> </p><p>The room is full of corpses and he falls into the Avatar state, overwhelmed.</p><p> </p><p>Katara touches him, reassuringly, and that something breaks.</p><p> </p><p>He pulls his mentor’s soul out of the spirit world and forces it into the broken body, unaware of his darkening expression.</p><p> </p><p>Gyatso wakes up.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. love</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It’s said soulmates exist.</p><p> </p><p>Looking at couples – Zuko and Katara, Sokka and Yue, Oma and Shu – things seem to align.</p><p> </p><p>Aang has realized it’s not that simple.</p><p> </p><p>Everything aligned for Zuko and Katara, but they never loved one another.</p><p> </p><p>Yue died, and Sokka found love again with Suki.</p><p> </p><p>Oma and Shu ended in tragedy.</p><p> </p><p>And Aang, shackled to destiny from birth, doesn’t like to leave things up to fate.</p><p> </p><p>He falls for Katara and at first they don’t seem to fit, but they grow together. They want to grow together.</p><p> </p><p>It works because he loves her, and she loves him.</p>
  </div></div>
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